


Even Now

by Welsper



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mission Fic, Reconciliation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:34:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22654078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Welsper/pseuds/Welsper
Summary: The world is burning and Jack and Gabriel have to fight side by side to save it.But will they ever be able to return to how things were?
Relationships: Reaper | Gabriel Reyes/Soldier: 76 | Jack Morrison
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	Even Now

**Author's Note:**

  * For [songshell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/songshell/gifts).



“Is that what you wanted then, Reyes? To watch cities burn? Le them finish what they started all those years ago? Will you not fight with us even now?”

Jack pointed his gun at the large Omnium approaching Tokyo. The thing really _flew._ Gabriel hadn’t wanted to believe Sombra, had wanted to believe it was another one of her stupid jokes. 

Akande was out of his damn mind. Gabriel had seen it too late, Maximilien had seen it too late. They had both thought they could guide him elsewhere, gather more information and find another path with what they had learned. But Akande was done waiting, was done planning.

Doomfist was going to destroy this world and rebuild from the ashes with those he thought worthy. 

“I was trying to stop him too, Jack!”

Gabriel ripped off the mask bolted to his face and although Jack must remember it, the pain still ripped at what Moira had left of his heart when he saw Jack flinch. It was getting worse with every day. He didn’t know how much longer there would be anything left of Gabriel. How much longer until it was really only Reaper.

“This is how far I went for the cause! Don’t tell me I didn’t care for the world as much as you did! To keep the peace, to keep order, _your_ order, I became this.” 

“Whatever Moira did to you, Angela and Ana can fix it!”

“It’s too late for that, Jack. What holds them never held Moira, not even when she was pretending it did. Tell me Jack, how much of an Overwatch soldier could I be like this? I never was a posterboy in the first place. That was you, bright and golden and everything they could dream of. Are little kids gonna hang up posters of the monster under their bed?” 

He made to put the mask back on, hiding his true face. A hand gripped his wrist, rough with the anger between them but a gentleness Gabriel had known many years ago.

“Don’t.”

“What? Want to take a picture to make it last longer? I’ll be in your nightmares either way, Jack. That’s the only place someone like me belongs. I failed my mission. I don’t suppose Winston of all people would make space for a new torture and execution squad in his Overwatch.” Gabriel tugged his wrist to wrench it out of Jack’s grip, but the man held him still. “Let go, Jack.”

“No.”

Jack pulled and Gabriel felt himself be wrapped into strong arms. The comfort was different now, rough and bitter, but for a moment Gabriel let himself enjoy it.

“To hell with your mission. To hell with mine. The both of us failed so many times before. Is that going to stop us from doing the right thing now?” Jack’s voice was low and raspy against his ear. Harsh and angry with all life had thrown at him – same as Gabriel. Perhaps even now, they were not so different.

“Ha. Doing the right thing. What’s that, now?

“Save this city, Gabriel. For starters.”

The sounds of the airborne Omnium was a cacophony above their heads now, nearly drowning out their voices.

“It’s fighting for those that need us. To protect the ones that can’t protect themselves. Don’t do it for Overwatch, and don’t do it for me, Gabriel. Do it for them!”

“What, want me to play hero?”

“Being a hero isn’t so bad,” Jack said and shrugged. There was a hint of a grin on his face. It wasn’t the same, bright, sunny smile Jack Morrison had so liked to show the world. The sign that everything was alright now, Overwatch was here. That Overwatch was gone. Would never return. Neither would the old Jack, or the old Gabriel. They were different men now, worse men for all they had done and seen.

But damn, is that smile still didn’t make Gabriel feel warm, even now.

“Sombra’s never going to let me hear the end of it.”

“Sombra can run her mouth once she helped take that thing down,” Jack laughed and Gabriel laughed with him.

“Ah, ah, what’s that, talking bad about people behind their backs?”

“You’re the one behind everyone’s backs, Sombra,” Gabriel sighed at the sound of Sombra’s voice appearing next to them. The air shimmered and there she was, giving them a slight wave.

“Someone’s gotta look out for you, Gabe! So you don’t run off with strange men!”

“I think it’s a few years too late for that.”

Sombra laughed.

“Si. But you heard him, didn’t you? We can do the right thing now.”

“Is that what you want?”

Sombra shrugged and said: “What I want is to get up there. If it helps some more kids from becoming like me, it’s a good day. And if fighting with your chico is finally going to stop you from being such a sourpuss all the time, even better!”

Gabriel decided to ignore that. Jack certainly wasn’t his chico, never had been and all notions of it that Gabriel had ever had of that happening had vanished with Moira’s first injection. No one could ever love a monster like him.

“Can’t all be rays of sunshine like you. Now even with all of us holding hands and singing Kumbaya, how are we going to get up there? These,” he said and waved one of his shotguns, “don’t go so far. Not even Widowmaker could shoot that thing out of the sky.”

“ _I could still take out you_ ,” he heard her say over the comms and had to laugh. 

“I suppose you could.” 

Before Gabriel got an answer to his question, he could see it.

“Damn, where did you get this old piece of junk from?”

One of Overwatch’s dropships approached them and four figures appeared in the opening doors as it landed. The ground shook as Winston raised himself after jumping down and adjusted his glasses. His frown was deep as he saw Gabriel and Gabriel was sure what was left of his own face didn’t look any friendlier. 

“Can we trust him?”

“As much as you can trust me,” Jack said. 

“Ah, no need to be so frosty with each other! We’re on the same team now, aren’t we?”

“For now,” a woman said as she approached them. She towered over Sombra, who seemed very happy to see her.

“And who are you?” 

“Zarya,” the woman grunted and gave Gabriel the look-down. Her gaze was like ice and still Sombra was all over her, like they were old friends. The woman rolled her eyes and Gabriel couldn’t help but snort in solidarity. 

That gun was almost as tall as she was. If her munition ran out, she could probably swing that thing like a mace, as big as she was. Sombra sure knew how to pick them.

Reinhardt would love her.

“Gabriel.”

A warm hand reached out to him and touched his cheek gingerly. Angela didn’t look at him with disgust, or fear, just sadness and kindness. Just like her. Maybe she had even seen worse than him, in her quest to heal the world. Well, that quest had come to a dead-end here. There was no saving him. He shook her hand off. 

“Enough introductions, let’s go.” 

* * *

Gabriel coughed, smoke and blood rising from his lungs as he tried to draw in breath that was both life and death to him these days. It was more death, right now. The omnium was burning around him, the wailing of bursting metal filling his ears like the screams of the damned.

He’d be joining them soon.

“Hey there, boss.”

Gabriel nearly groaned at the sound of that voice.

“Oh great, it’s you. I had hoped you’d died in some shootout long ago.”

“Ain’t my time yet, boss. And yours neither,” Jesse said and pulled him to his feet. “Morrison would never forgive me if I let you die here. Don’t need two old men with a grudge on my ass!” 

Jesse ignored his curses and dragged him along, towards the light shining through the heavy smoke. It was a rip in the hull of the Omnium.

“Have a nice flight, boss!” Jesse only said and shoved him out. Cackling like a madman, he jumped after him. 

What Gabriel wouldn’t give for one day without insane people.

With a groan, he landed right in the airship that appeared beneath them.

“Wew, got you two after all! If my calculations had been off by just-”

“Spare me!” Reaper hissed. He bit down a scream as he tried to sit up. Even his nanotech body couldn’t keep up with how much damage had been dealt. 

“Don’t move.”

And then the pain faded. The gentle glow of a biotic field engulfed him and Gabriel couldn’t help but let out a sigh. Jack pulled him back against his chest and for a moment Gabriel felt like resisting but then didn’t. He could blame it on the injuries.

“Sure risked your neck out there for not wanting to be a hero, Reyes.” Jack rested his forehead on Gabriel’s shoulder. 

“Couldn’t let you look like an idiot alone.”

“Charmer.”

“How come he gets the hugs when I pulled you out of there?” Jesse said and lit up a cigar. 

“Hey, no smoking in there!” 

“Oh bite me, Winston! I nearly died out there!”

“You’re definitely going to die when I throw you out of this airship!” 

Gabriel guffawed, the pain in his chest spiking sharp but he couldn’t help himself. Still the same morons, then.

He had missed them.

Had missed  _him._

* * *

Gabriel didn’t even look up when Jack entered his room.

“I can… this is warm, Jack,” Gabriel said quietly as he touched his own skin. It was flaking and pale but it was real. After all those years, he felt like a person again. Like a human. 

“I told you they could do it. Angela’s never found anything in the world she didn’t want to heal and Ana’s too stubborn to give up on anything.”

“Sounds like someone I know.”

“We never should have gone it alone,” Jack said and sat down on the edge of the bed. Gabriel longed to reach out to him. Touch him. To really be able to feel him. “I shouldn’t have let them push you aside. Blackwatch should have never existed.”

“But it did. It’s too late now to go back, Jack. Too late to change anything.”

“You’re right.”

Jack reached out with his hand and it was nearly touching his own on the bed. Gabriel closed the distance. They both looked on as their fingers were not quite intertwining, but resting against the other’s. Old and scarred, like they were.

“I thought you had betrayed me,” Jack said quietly. “Betrayed all of us.”

“If only things were that easy.”

Jack held Gabriel’s hand and brought it to his own lips. His lips were rough, chapped, but it was the kindest touch Gabriel had known in years.

“I’m glad they weren’t.”

“If I had known from the beginning what you were doing, if we had worked together, would it be worse now? Or better?” 

“Who knows,” Gabriel said and sat up with some effort. What he had wanted to do all this time he allowed himself now, and touched Jack’s cheek. He leaned in and Jack didn’t draw back. 

After a lifetime of longing, of friendship and rivalry, of bitterness and loneliness and hatred, the kiss made his chest draw tight.

“It is what it is, Jack.”

Jack smiled at him, a true smile and Gabriel found himself returning it.

“Then let’s make the best of it.” 


End file.
